Fake bands and artificial songs are taking over YouTube and Spotify

The description of the album Rumba Congo (1973), uploaded to YouTube, tells the entire story of the musicians that recorded it. The band is called Concubanas. Founded in Havana in 1971, the group played a unique fusion of Cuban and Congolese music. They disbanded in 1992, but not before leaving behind countless musical gems.

At the very bottom of the description beneath the YouTube video, there’s a note that the content is “altered or synthetic.” This phrase is a euphemism to indicate that the music in the video was generated using AI. The band isn’t real.

The album Rumba Congo features melodies reminiscent of salsa, rumba, or the son cubano genre (“the Cuban sound”). For the untrained ear, it’s difficult to realize that this music was generated with a handful of prompts. AI is now used to create songs that go beyond ambient themes, which merely provide sounds that help listeners relax, or create a mood to concentrate and study. Platforms such as Suno, Boomy, or Udio allow for the generation of relatively intricate jazz or rock compositions.

A study by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) in France estimates that revenue from AI-generated music will increase from $100 million in 2023 to around $4 billion in 2028. By then, the organization estimates that 20% of streaming platforms’ revenue will come from this type of music.

One of the major problems with this trend is the lack of transparency. María Teresa Llano, an associate professor at the University of Sussex who studies the intersection of creativity, art and AI, emphasizes this aspect: “There’s no way for people to know if something is AI or not. [It’s not as simple as searching] for an artist you’ve come across. Right now, there’s a responsibility hanging over you. It’s the responsibility to ensure [that there’s] transparency, to make it clear whether something is generated by artificial intelligence or by humans.”

Some voices are already talking about the rise of this type of AI-generated music. Reddit threads on the subject, as well as an article by FastCompany, have warned of the influx of AI-generated songs on Spotify. On Spotify Community — a forum for the service’s users — a petition is circulating that calls for clear labeling of AI-generated music, as well as an option for users to block these types of songs from appearing on their feeds.

In some of these forums, the rejection of AI-generated music is palpable. Llano mentions the feelings of deception or betrayal that listeners may experience, but asserts that this is a personal matter. There will be those who feel this way, as well as those who admire what the technology is capable of. “For me, being from Colombia — and obviously having been born and raised with salsa — when I heard [the album Rumba Congo], I thought it was okay. And when I realized it was AI, I thought it was amazing,” she confesses, “but it took away its charm.”

Some take it as a joke, deploying the classic sarcasm of internet trolls. A comment on one of the lyric videos by the fake Cuban band reads: “I remember this band playing live when I ran into a CIA agent in a Havana café in 1972. What a time!” Someone then replies: “I was that CIA agent.” And another user — either believing the conversation, or perhaps simply continuing the thread of trolling — answers them both: “It’s incredible that you two met here (on YouTube) again.” It certainly is totally incredible…

Joking aside, not knowing whether music was made by people or an AI program has implications. “I think that, in the future, when somebody listens to something new, they’ll be uncertain about whether it was generated by AI or not. And that uncertainty generates frustration… not knowing if what I’m hearing is real or not,” Llano sighs. She also mentions the subject of fake news: “There’s a very immediate impact [with news], which [has to do with] whether something is actually happening or not. With art, the impact is different; it’s closer to how one experiences it,” she reflects.

Some content creators upload AI-generated music, while clearly stating this. One of the most popular sources is AI Music Puppy. This YouTube channel, which offers electronic music with a DJ puppy as the video’s visual, is quite transparent, given its name and the disclaimer written at the beginning of each video’s description. But this forthrightness isn’t typical.

One of the keys to tackling the problem is to include a warning on AI-generated songs. YouTube states that content creators must “disclose to viewers when realistic content [...] is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI.” Users will see this if they glance at the description. But this is only when using the app, because on a computer, they will have to scroll down to the very end of the description to get the warning.

Google — YouTube’s owner — acknowledges that a feeling of being deceived can arise if AI use isn’t disclosed. “It can be misleading if viewers think a video is real, when it’s actually been meaningfully altered or synthetically generated to seem realistic,” reads YouTube’s policy. Thus, when creators don’t admit to the use of AI, the platform “may take action to reduce the risk of harm to viewers by proactively applying a label that creators will not have the option to remove.” YouTube also reserves the right to penalize these channels, for example, by removing their content.

Spotify, on the other hand, hasn’t shared any policy for labeling AI-powered content with EL PAÍS. In an interview with Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s co-president and chief product & technology officer, he emphasized that AI “increases people’s creativity” because more people can be creative, thanks to the fact that “you don’t need to have fine motor skills on the piano.” He also made a distinction between music generated entirely with AI and music in which the technology is only partially used. But the only limit he mentioned for moderating artificial music was copyright infringement… something that has been a red line for any streaming service for many years now. And such a violation is very difficult to legally prove when artificial intelligence is involved.

Llano advocates for measures that clearly label content. “There should be an indicator that says whether something is generated with AI. This would begin to provide more transparency for users.”

The professor from the University of Sussex explains one of the intangibles that justifies the labeling of content: “In the arts, we can establish a connection with the artist; we can learn about their life and what influenced them to better understand their career. With artificial intelligence, that connection no longer exists.”

Concubanas’ album Rumba Congo has 1.3 million views on YouTube. It’s not the only fictional band, nor the only one with a history. The band Phantasia (not a real band) distills a fusion of flutes, electronic sounds and electric guitars that a description defines as a “fusion of Japanese progressive jazz.” Its fake albums rack up thousands of plays. The AI band even has its own invented past. “After Ryo Kobayashi’s departure in 1976, Phantasia entered a period of silence,” reads one video description. “Two years later, the group [emerged] from the shadows with Divine Incarnation, the dawn of what fans now call their ‘golden age.’”

Both fake bands originate from the same channel, Zaruret, whose oldest videos are only seven months old. In that time, the channel has published 135 music videos, many of them over 30 minutes long. They have no moving images, just cover art and AI-generated music, and are accompanied by long, AI-generated texts. There are also disclaimers about “altered or synthetic content” at the end of each video’s description. The channel has accumulated millions of views and 37,600 subscribers.

Its profile description reads: “You’re not going to believe your ears! Everything that happens on this channel is fiction. But what is the truth? F*ck it, just listen!” A nihilistic statement that invites you to believe that nothing really matters.

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